A New Twist on Gratitude Part 1 & 2

Jaclyn Mellone

Welcome to Go-To Gal episode number 201. As always, I’m your host, Jaclyn Mellone. And today’s episode is somewhat of a mashup. So the past couple of years, we’ve done episodes on gratitude during the week of Thanksgiving. What a good time to think about gratitude. And before that, I feel like this was one of those weeks where I would do replays. And so this year’s like, ahh, we do last year’s episode. It was one of our most popular. We had so much feedback from it. I know it really resonated with those of you that heard it. And even if you heard it last year, I feel like it’s one of those things that, ooh, this would be a good reminder again. And if you didn’t hear last year’s episode, if you’re newer to us in the year or less then I wanted you to hear that. Some like, ah, did we do two episodes this week? Or do we just replay that one because it was really good? And I was a little bit torn and then I have this, I don’t know. There’s something that’s been on my mind. I’m like, do we call it a negative inspiration? But just something that’s been really top of mind for me on the topic of gratitude that I wanted to share with you. And so I’m like, you know what, let’s do both. 

So I’m going to kick off this episode by telling you what I’ve been thinking about in terms of gratitude lately. And how I’ve been taking it to the next level with a little bit of nuance that maybe you’re already doing or not doing or doing unconsciously, and now you can do it consciously since I’m bringing it to your attention. And we’re going to put the other episode attached to this one because I think it’s a really good reminder at this time of year. And if you missed it, I wanted to make sure that you could easily hear it.

Okay, so where do we begin here? Gratitude is something that I really hope you are focusing on all year round and not just this time of year. But I think that this is a good time of year to, one, if you’re not focusing on it all the time, this is a great time to kick it off. And even if you do have somewhat of a gratitude practice, this is a good time of year to re-examine that and see where you can go deeper with it. So one of our big overarching principles here, principles, I’m so formal, overarching ideas here at Go-To Gal is, and this is something that is currently in the first-ever episode, the trailer, if you will, for Go-To Gal. It’s this statement that is something that, at the time, it came from, it was something I really needed to hear. And it was something my clients really needed to hear. And this was a long time ago. It’s something we come back to time and time again because as we are growing, growing as people, growing as business owners, as go-to gals, and as we’re growing our businesses, this is something that I find as a big sticking point. And that is what feels like a paradox of, okay, will you talk about gratitude and yes, I’m grateful, But I want more. 

And how do these two things coexis? Okay, I’m grateful for what I have. But at the same time, I’m also putting on my vision board something totally different or listing my goals for the year. And they feel drastically different from where I currently am right now. So doesn’t that mean that if I don’t want what I currently have, that I’m not grateful for it? Or even this like, I feel weird or bad or guilty for setting or wanting bigger goals because I am or I should be grateful for what I have. And this pole is something that I know a lot of us to experience at different points, especially as we’re thinking about growing our business, which is also something we tend to think about this time of year.

So from that, you might have heard me say this, but again, it’s a good time of year. And if you haven’t, it’s something I really want to make sure of. Write this down and come back to it time and time again. I can be grateful for everything I have and still want more. I can be grateful for everything I have and still want more. Write that down. You can have both, but these two are not mutually exclusive. And I think recognizing that is the key to getting on that path to more. It’s that being in gratitude for the present and what you have that allows you to really go for more when you’re in constant friction. Because at times that can be a struggle.

So what does that mean? Where does that fit into everything? Well, something I’ve been thinking about is if we’re having a gratitude practice, a lot of times that is writing down what we’re grateful for. And I encourage you to do this in a way where it actually evokes emotion. I want you to feel what is on that paper. If you’re just able to write your gratitude list without feeling that emotion, especially like the best. I feel like the best gratitude practice is when you get a little teary-eyed or something because you’re feeling it so strongly. If you’re disconnected from the words that you’re writing, it feels like it doesn’t have the same effect.  And so, I encourage you to get really specific with that gratitude less and dig deeper. And oftentimes even, write things down that you’re not feeling grateful for in finding the gratitude for them. Using that practice to shift into gratitude for things that maybe you’re not feeling especially grateful for.

So taking that, what I’ve been thinking about recently is, okay, so there’s that moment of gratitude. But then what? And there are certain things that we are living in gratitude with. It’s just second nature to us. But when I come back to that statement, I can be incredibly grateful, what does being grateful look like? What does that mean? It’s not just that fleeting feeling of gratitude and we’re writing our list, but it’s actually embodying. It’s being in gratitude, and not just feeling grateful for a moment but being grateful. I realized there’s nuance here. And I feel like, okay, Jaclyn, isn’t this inferred? If I’m writing down that I’m feeling grateful, I am grateful. Is this level of nuance necessary? And maybe for you, it’s not. But what I’ve found is that there are some things that I’ll write down like,n yes, I’m feeling grateful for that. But then I don’t think about it again. Or is there something that maybe I don’t feel especially grateful for that I write down, and at that moment I’m able to have a moment of gratitude like, okay, I can reason with myself here. I can get to it. But then as soon as I put that pen and paper down, it’s gone. It’s not top of mind for me. I’m not living it. It’s not integrated into my life. And as I tend to go deep with thinking about things like this, this time of year, especially, I can’t help but think, okay, what are some of those things that I can embody more? 

If I’m writing down that I’m grateful for my home, which is a pretty generic thing to say. Usually, that doesn’t evoke a lot of emotion, but let’s say that’s something you’re writing down, what does it look like to be grateful for your home? Does that mean that you’re decorating in a certain way? Does that mean you are maybe doing some decluttering? What does that look like to not just write down that you’re grateful for your home but to be grateful for your home? And I think, especially in the context of business growth and expansion and that way, going back to that statement of, I can be incredibly grateful for everything I have and still want more. What is it that you want more of? What’s the more? Because when you’re clear on the more, and you can dig a little deeper and see, okay, well, where do I feel the tension? Where does that more conflict with feeling gratitude in the moment if you want more money or if you want a bigger house? Or if the more is, I’m thinking maybe you want more friends, but you’re probably not feeling that conflict with this deep, but maybe. I don’t know. I shouldn’t overanalyze this. 

But thinking about what you’re more is and where that conflict might be, maybe it’s clients or students, money specifically. Anything like that, getting clear on that and being like, okay, so how can you fully integrate, fully embody that gratitude right now for the thing that you currently have? And maybe it’s one client, or maybe it’s five clients, but you want more clients. Or maybe it’s how much money you have, and maybe there’s not a lot right now on your bank account. Or maybe there is a lot and you’re like, I feel guilty that I even want more, or you look at how much money you’ve made over the last year.  How can you be in gratitude for that thing that you want more of? How can you not just write down on a piece of paper that you’re feeling grateful for, but what can you actually do?  Gratitude in motion here. And maybe it is with money, maybe it’s donating money. Maybe it’s just doing something to be organized and attentive to where it is and where it’s going and feeling grateful in that process of that.

Even if it’s going to things that maybe you don’t want it to go in. So maybe that you are a pathway for some things that maybe you have to find some gratitude for, and getting more specific with what are those things that you’re trying to do. If it is a new home, how can you embody that gratitude for the current place that you’re living in? And what does that look like? Not just to write down that you’re grateful for it, but the being. And have fun with this. This is something that there’s no rhyme or reason to. And again, it’s probably inferred in the process of gratitude practices. But I don’t think most of us are conscious of it. And so I want you to just challenge yourself to have some fun with this. Take this extra step of, how could I put this gratitude in motion? What actions can I be doing to really feel this gratitude and experience it fully, not just writing it on a sheet of paper and feeling it at that moment?

Definitely explore this with the things that you want more of, because that’s where that conflict might be. But do this with everything. This is, I think, the next step of your gratitude practice is that you’re not just acknowledging the gratitude for a few minutes on a piece of paper, but that you are living in that. And when you are, sure. And when I’m talking about it, yes, maybe it’s a pathway for you to have that more that you want. But it’s also a pathway for you to just be enjoying the more that you already have and feeling more fulfilled in your current life. Sometimes when we’re always seeking more, this is the other side of that statement.  When we’re always seeking more, we miss the full enjoyment and fulfillment of what we’ve already created of the current moment that we’re in. So this is going to help with all of that. And it’s probably something that you know on some level already. But I think this is a good time for us to talk about it. And maybe you haven’t thought about it like this before. 

And so if that’s the case, hopefully, this resonates with you and sparked something in you to really take this gratitude practice to the next level. Now, I think this is a good tee-up for the second part of our mash-up here, which is our episode from last year. Again, even if you listened to last year, I do think it is worth re-listening again. It’s a great reminder to come back to you. And if you didn’t listen last year, you’re in for a treat. So let’s cutover. This next part is going to go back in time to Jaclyn at the end of 2020. And we’re going to dive into a different way to look at gratitude. Clearly, I like exploring gratitude from all angles. I think it’s such a powerful thing in our lives, and with growth and all of these things. So here you go. The second part of our mashup. 

So basically, I got really inspired this weekend to go into our basement, which is like Monica’s closet situation, only extreme. So for any of you that don’t get the Friends reference, and Friends, I don’t know Monica. It’s so clean and organized, but then it is like the closet that no one’s allowed to go in. That’s completely out of control. And for us, it’s like this giant basement that’s unfinished, and there’s always just been. Since we’ve moved in, just boxes and bins. And over the years between all of the sizes of clothes and kids and toys and accumulating things, I mean, we’ve been in our house since 2007. Pretty crazy. We moved in here, I was 23. I wasn’t even 24 yet. I think I turned 24 shortly after. 

So we’ve been here a long time and just accumulated a lot. And it’s easy that whenever we’re rearranging or redecorating, it’s just easy to put stuff in the basement where nobody sees it. And I’m going to come back to it. But while I was down there, I spent six hours organizing, purging, donation bins, garbage, like all the things. And something like a story came to me, and then I just started putting some things together. I wanted to share it with you. So for those of you in the US, this is our Thanksgiving week. But even if you’re not celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I feel like this is the season of just thinking about gratitude and many other things. But let’s say, I wanted to talk about gratitude. And I’m sure in other years, I’ve done episodes completely on gratitude. And hopefully, you’re making gratitude a daily practice in your life. But it’s still front and center in this season. And so I wanted to share something about that. I wanted to talk about the topic of gratitude but from a different angle. And so when this came to me, I was like, oh, okay, this is not exactly what we were planning on publishing this week, but I knew I wanted to share this with you. 

So before I get to the story, the dots that were connected, I want to tell you the other story that came to mind. So I want to start with what popped into my head while I was in the basement, and then I’ll connect all of the dots for you and share just the message that is on my heart this week that I hope to inspire you with too. So what popped into my head was actually a speech that a friend of mine posted about. So the speech itself is by Russell Conwell. He’s the founder of Temple University, and this is a famous speech of his called Acres of Diamonds. You may have heard it before. Don’t stop listening. You need to hear it again, especially what I’m going to say after. If you haven’t heard it before, you’re in for a treat. But just to give proper credit here. 

So Russell Conwell is the originator of this speech. But Chris Winfield, who was actually on the podcast back in March, Chris has been a mentor and a friend to me over the years. He’s an incredible human being. And if you don’t know him, he’s known as the super-connector. He’s a PR and media expert, not at all related to the story that I’m going to share. But just throwing that in there in case you don’t know Chris. So Chris had shared this post with his version. I don’t know if it was from memory or whatnot. But I’m going to share loosely Chris’s words just because I don’t know the story enough on my own. And I really liked his interpretation of it. And I figured, the way my brain works, I literally thought of the speech and thought of Chris posting about it and had this vision in my head and I’m like, okay, we’re just going to share Chris’s version of it because why not? So just to give proper credit where credit is due. 

So I want to share this story with you from the speech. And then we’ll talk about it after. So this story goes something like this. There was a farmer who lived in Africa. And by all accounts, he was extremely successful and wealthy. And he’s feeling pretty great about where he was in life too. That is until one day when a guy came to visit him and started talking about all of these people who were getting insanely rich from discovering and selling diamonds. All of a sudden, the farmer felt like, oh, geez, maybe I’m really not doing all that great. And you started second-guessing everything. He went to bed that night, just feeling really bad about himself and his situation and feeling like, God, what have I been even doing? And like he was missing out on this big opportunity. That’s when he thought, okay, I’m going to go out and I’m going to find those diamonds for myself. So he took action. He sold his farm and wandered all over the continent for years with no luck. 

He never discovered his diamonds and eventually went broke. Which is when he threw himself into a river and drowned. Now, here’s where things get interesting. The man who purchased the farm from him after he sold it to go out and look for the diamonds, this man is now living at his farm and was out walking around on the property when he came across a small stream and the yard. In it, he saw these really unusual beautiful rocks so he picked it up and took it back home, and placed it right on his mantle. The next day, a priest came to visit him, saw the rock, and said, oh my God, what is this? Maybe the priest didn’t actually say, oh my God. I told you, the story is very, very much paraphrased. Oh, geez Louise, oh my goodness. Do you realize what you have here? At which the farmer replied, no, I just found it in the river. There are hundreds of them out there. 

At this point, the priest said, that is the biggest diamond I have ever seen in my life. The farm turned out to be one of the richest diamond mines the world ever knew. Gosh, it’s like I’ve read this a bunch of times and I still have goosebumps just reading it. The fact that this man was living on this farm and left to go searching for diamonds, feeling like he was missing out. And this whole time, the biggest diamond mine the world ever knew what was right in his backyard. I, honestly, don’t know if this is a true story or not. But I do believe that it is. But it really doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. And this world we’re in now, it’s so easy to get caught up in the comparison trap and the grass is always greener or at least through Instagram filters. And seeing on social media what other people are doing or what other people are doing with their business, and either feeling that comparison-itis, I like to say. Or having that FOMO of, gosh, maybe I should be doing this with my business, or I should be trying that out.

So easy to be looking at what everyone else’s doing and beyond ourselves for these things. So when I was thinking about this in the basement, what came to me at first was actually not at all about business. Because I mentioned Monica’s closet joke and whatnot. But there have been times over the past 13 years that I have cleaned out the basement. There have been several times where it’s been like a big project and all of that. But what I was thinking about was most of those times, if not all of them, the motivation for cleaning out the basement was really to sell stuff. There was some type of financial motivation. It was like, okay, we have all this stuff in the basement, let’s sell some things and use the money for this, or because we need the money, or whatever it was.

It was always like a garage sale type of motivation. Here’s the thing. In my spare time, I don’t like to clean things or organize things. That’s not typically what I do. It’s not my default. And so the basement, which nobody ever goes down there and sees, it’s not part of my life on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. So cleaning out the basement is pretty low on my priority list. And even if it was clean, it wouldn’t necessarily incrementally make my life better, if that makes any sense. I’m sure there are some of you that are totally the opposite of me, and that you’re listening and you’re like, that’s crazy, Jaclyn. Hopefully, someone’s listening can relate to this. But it’s like, okay, I guess I could clean it, but why? What’s the point? She’s probably going to get messy again. And I’m not really, it’s not really going to change anything if it’s clean and organized down there. 

So in the past, it was always like, okay, let’s sell some stuff. Let’s make some money for whatever the thing was. But money was a motivator. And hey, when you have a motivator like, oh, I want to buy this thing, or money’s tight, I want to make some money. Whatever that is, okay, now that’s what’s going to spring me into action. That’s what’s going to bring about my motivation. But this time around, that wasn’t the case. I actually don’t plan anything in the basement and be one or two things. But selling things is not my motivation right now. The reason why I got motivated to start cleaning out the basement was that I had this epiphany. Well, the epiphany came from fear, from my anxiety. We’re being real here. So right now in New York state, because I live in Rochester, New York, our numbers had been really good here in terms of COVID. We were in green, whatever that is. And my kids are in school, and everyone’s wearing masks here and we’ve adapted. 

But businesses are open. We’ve been able to manage it. Well, recently we moved up to yellow. And if we move into the orange zone, which is, I believe, a 4% positivity rate, if we get to that point, then schools could close. And so there’s a lot of uncertainty right now and it’s like, what’s going to happen? Even if the kids do stay in school, it’s going to be a long winter no matter what happens. Even if things are good, we’re not really seeing a lot of people. We’re pretty much to ourselves and thankfully, with my parents a couple of miles away. But we’re not doing much. So I’m like, this is going to be a long winter. The summer was nice. We have a pool and I’m like, what are we going to do all winter? It gets very cold here. There’s snow. Snow can be fun, but also, it can be very cold. So I had this epiphany, I’m making it sound way more dramatic than it is. But I don’t know, it just came to me one day of like, oh, what if I cleaned out the basement, not just organized clean, but like, what if I actually emptied out an entire half of the basement and created this play space for the kids down there?

Now, I’ve been really challenging myself to think about, you’ve maybe even heard me share this on the podcast because I’ve probably shared it a couple of times, but I’ve been trying to think about things differently. We’ve been in our house a long time. And sometimes you just get used to things being a certain way. Or you think like, we have four bedrooms and I had it in my head that you have a guest room. And at the end of last year, I was like, why do we need to have a guest room if we have beds that guests can sleep in? Why does there need to be an entire room dedicated to guests? And that’s when we took the kids’ playroom, which was in, I say, if we were grownups, it would be our dining room. And we moved to the playroom upstairs into the “guest room.” And so now, they have a playroom upstairs and I took over their playroom. Now, I have my own office. 

So I’ve been trying to force myself to think about things just a little bit differently of how we could be using our space in a different way, especially now that we’re home so much. So I had this thought of like, whoa, okay, our basement is probably close to 1300 square feet so it’s a pretty big space. It’s unfinished. It’s not at all pretty, and it’s not like big windows or anything. There are windows but they’re pretty small. And the ceilings aren’t that high. It’s not a nice basement, but it’s space. And they have a playroom, but I was thinking like, oh, they can ride their bikes in circles, or we have a bounce house that they could blow up down there. I don’t know, maybe we bring their gym mats and they could do cartwheels and stuff. I don’t know, who knows? 

But I’m like, we’re going to behold up for a while, what if we took this space in and use it in a different way? And so that got me really excited about the potential of things that we could do down there. Also, my kitchen table, they’ve completely destroyed. Marshall’s taken scissors and literally grooved things, it’s so bad. But it’s at the point where I’m like, I can’t just buy another table because they’re probably going to do it again. They’re not out of that stage yet. But if we had this other space in the basement for them to do crafts then maybe the kitchen table wouldn’t need to be the craft hub. So now, I’m all excited about things we can do in the basement. Thus getting motivated to spend six hours in the basement going through all these bins and purging, organizing all the things.

So why am I sharing all of this with you? Because as I’m down there and thinking about this story, the Acres of Diamonds, I was just starting to think like, wow, we get so used to things being a certain way that we don’t think about, oh, and I’ve even said like, oh, maybe someday we’ll move. Or we’re in a situation where we don’t have to move, we have plenty of space where we are. But who knows? Maybe someday we move into a house that’s more architecturally interesting or has a basement with higher ceilings that are finished or something like that. Nothing huge or dramatic, but I’ve found myself saying like, oh yes, our basement ceilings are low. It’s not worth finishing it. And I’ve written off the idea that we could use that space. And so when this came to me, I’m like, I didn’t even consider that literally right below my feet, like literally right underneath me, is this incredible space that the kids could be taking advantage of that could really just bring so much fun and joy and sanity into our winter because I just was thinking that it had to look a certain way or be a certain way.

And I just started thinking about this with everything. It’s nice that we’re practicing gratitude. And we think about those things in our life, maybe the humans in our life or our homes or our business, or whatever it is, our clients. Sometimes we say we’re grateful for them, but it’s coming from a place of, I’m grateful for my home. It’s like, instead of being like, I’m so grateful for my home, it’s like, I’m grateful for my home that I have a place to live. It’s like low-barrel gratitude. It’s not like pure gratitude of just, I’m so grateful because I get to live in this beautiful, amazing space. It’s like, I’m just grateful that I have a place to live, or that this home has been here for us, or whatever it is. But it’s like that, I don’t know, bottom of the barrel gratitude is the only thing that’s coming to mind for how to describe this. I’m still processing this myself. I am just as excited to share it with you too. And I’m a verbal processor, so as I talk about this, I’m probably going to get a little bit more clear on how to say it. So bear with me. I don’t script these episodes. I don’t do them often because I don’t really have as much time lately to just talk and let it go where it is, and have that clarity of thought.

I would love to do more in 2021. But this one is a little bit on the fly. They’re never scripted because I can’t read. I can read, but when I go to read, I just start improvising things. If you actually read Chris’ story of the Acres of Diamonds and then listen to my version of it, that’s what happens when I read. I just make things up as I go. So sometimes when we’re expressing gratitude, there’s not that depth to it, there’s not that pure appreciation, and there’s not that realization that maybe the thing that we’re showing gratitude for. And I encourage people to do. I encourage you to when you’re doing gratitude if you have not heard me speak on not doing a daily gratitude practice today, but I’m in this episode. But if you haven’t heard me talk about that, I encourage you to feel grateful for things that maybe you don’t really feel all that grateful for. 

So if there’s something, a situation that’s stressing you out, or a person who’s stressing you out or whatever it is, I encourage you to find gratitude for those things because that’s where you start to really shift your mindset, your mental state. And with that, you shift your energy. So with this, with this gratitude, especially this week, but always, I was realizing, even if you are showing gratitude for these things all around you, you may not be really appreciating them for what they are. You may not realize what they really are. You may not realize what you’re sitting on. You may not realize the relationships you have in business and your personal life. You may not realize the full potential of what you have. And that’s really what clicked for me is like, wow, what if we already have it all? What if we already have everything that we want, and we just haven’t uncovered it yet? We haven’t dug deep enough yet. What if that next client or that next big opportunity is already there? They already know you, it’s already teed up, it just hasn’t happened yet, or they just haven’t seen you talk about it yet, or the right timing hasn’t aligned yet.

But what if it’s all right there? But if you’re seeing other people online talk about their biz besties and wishing that you had a bit of a bestie like that, or talking about their husbands or boyfriends and wishing that you had a relationship like that? What if you already do? What if you already have a friend who could be that biz bestie, but you just haven’t gotten there yet, you haven’t put in the time and attention yet? What if your relationship with your boyfriend, maybe it’s a new relationship, maybe it’s a husband you’ve been together for a long time, what if that relationship could be like the one that you think you’re envious of but you haven’t taken the time to nurture it or invest in it or explore that, or really put in what you want to get out of it? 

What if your space, so for me, this all started from a very literal place. But I talk about what if I had a house that was more architecturally interesting? But what if my house was architecturally interesting and I hadn’t really embraced that? Or what if there were things about my house that I want in a house that are already here, as this basement space? Maybe it’s not exactly what I had pictured, but it’s there for us. So, especially, as this year as we’re home so much, and we’re in our space and we’re with our people and we’re growing our businesses from home, it may feel limiting, your interactions with other people are limited to online and to people you’re already connected with. And so it’s easy to see other people and be like, oh, I feel like I need a whole new business model, or gosh, I’m not going to conferences so I’m not going to be able to connect with people like that. But what if you can do it all from your house? What if you can do it all from exactly where you are right now?

Oh, I wasn’t thinking that I was going to bring this story yet, but when I started my business, it was back in 2015. So my first podcast, my first ever paid product, and I found out I was pregnant with Marshall the same week back at the end of October, early November of 2015. And so quite a week, a very memorable week, but I remember that year I had a difficult pregnancy so I knew I wasn’t going to travel during the pregnancy. And there was also something really new in my business and not making a lot of money. And after Marshall was born, I didn’t do much either. I did have a speaking opportunity in San Diego. I went to, but I really didn’t go to a lot of conferences that first year and a half of my business. And I got discouraged by that. I saw other people going to conferences and I was like, it’s so much FOMO. I’m missing out. And I really poured a lot into zoom and to building relationships online, and getting on zoom calls and doing coffee chats, and getting to know people that way, because I knew I couldn’t go out there and do it. 

And back then, other people could be doing it. Now, we’re all in the same boat. So whatever it is that you’re putting on that vision board for 2021, that vision board for the next five years or 10 years, what if it’s already happening? What if it’s already teed up? I just want you to really lean into that and sink into that, and trust that it’s there. So as you’re leaning into gratitude this week, every week, hopefully, every week, I really want you to just take it a step further. And to really feel into that, that belief that what if you already had it all? What if I already had it all? You just haven’t dug deep enough yet. You just haven’t uncovered it yet, or you just haven’t cultivated yet. I should probably not use gardening references because I do not garden, my husband gardens. He’s got the green thumb. I have whatever the opposite of a green thumb is. I don’t know what the opposite of a green thumb is, but I have that. 

But that said if we’re going to take this Acres of Diamonds metaphor, if it’s back there, if it’s diamonds, are you digging for it? Are you exploring? Are you planting the seeds? Are you watering and taking care of that metaphorical garden? Are you pruning? Pruning is a big part of this process for you. What if you have the perfect thing, but it’s covered up and all this dead weight, all this dead leaves. And that could be an offering that you have, that could be a relationship, who knows, an opportunity. Maybe you’re doing all the things when there’s really only one thing you should be focusing on. 

So I just want you to reflect on this a little bit. Lean into gratitude, but just trust that it’s all there, that it’s all happening. And maybe take on that, I don’t know, it’s kind of a fun spin on it. But this explorer mindset of, I know it’s there. I know those clients are already there. I know that the next opportunity is already there. Your journey, your job is just to discover it and to get out there and do the thing, or get down to the basement and clean it out. Whatever that is for you in your life, as you’re reflecting, I just want you to go a little bit deeper with that and trust that it’s there. You already have it all. You just have to now do the work to find it. So with that, I wish you everything you want and all the gratitude for everything you already have, and that’s already happening for you. If you are celebrating this week, I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving. I know it’s not our typical Thanksgiving, but hopefully, you’re able to make the best of it. And find the joy in whatever the new tradition this year is, that hopefully, is not a lasting tradition. But maybe there’s a piece of it that will continue on. 

And with that, I hear the garage door opening. My recording time is officially over. The time of my children-free house is officially up. But wishing you the best. And if this message inspired you today, if the story resonated with you, who else do you know that needs to hear this? I so appreciate you sharing it with a friend over text message or in your Instagram stories. I have little eyes peeking through the window, so I really got to go now. But let’s spread this message, and I would appreciate your help in doing that. All right. Happy Thanksgiving, and as always, I’m cheering you on. 

Can I just say thank you so much for listening. I don’t think I say it enough, but I love that you are here. If you enjoy today’s episode, or if you’ve been getting value from this podcast, can you do me a quick favor? Head on over to iTunes and leave a rating and review. When you leave a rating and review, it basically tells iTunes that they need to spread the word and tell more people about this podcast, and I am on a mission to get the word out. I’m so grateful for your support. We want to make sure to shout you out too. So if you do leave a rating review, keep your eyes and ears open. We will be either shouting out in the podcast or on Instagram Stories.